During the 16th International
Architecture Biennale, until November 25, curated Yvonne Farrell and Shelley
and entitled FreeSpace, at the Giardini, at the Arsenale
and around Venice, National Pavilions present their own exhibitions. The
Golden Lion for the Best National Participation was awarded to Switzerland
and a Special Mention for National Participation went to Great
Britain.

Wild nature is a model
architecture can look up to, or it can be forbidden territory not to be
trespassed upon. 10,000 plants inside and outside the Pavilion tell the story
of the tension between the environment and human spaces and is designed to
stimulate debate not only among professionals but at a cultural, social and economic
level, too. Space finds its definition in a debate between experts in urban
design, landscape architecture, indigenous culture and philosophy. These
disciplines will act as a filter to help us see architecture as it hasn’t been
imagined before.

An occasion to reflect on
age-old questions about the meaning of Europe and its need for strength and
vitality to counter raging nationalism. At the geographical and political heart
of the continent, the European quarter in Brussels means more than the sum of
adjacent physical spaces; it is the embodiment of the political system of the
European Union. The goal of the Pavilion, built in 1907 and the second-oldest
after the former Italian Pavilion, is to feed debate and the exchange of different
views – something that seems lacking in the European quarter – about the future
of Europe, starting with a better knowledge of Brussels’ own urban fabric.

Sixty
years since its construction and after four years of renovation work, the
Pavilion itself is celebrated by showing the main stages of its history. The
restoration of the Canadian building
by architect Alberico Barbiano di
Belgiojoso, heir to the practice that designed the Pavilion originally in
1958 (BBPR - Ban, Belgiojoso,
Peressutti, Rogers).

Progressively
deprived of their original residents and filled with tourists, a large number
of tourist destinations in Czechia and Slovakia are seeing their traditional
rhythms and habits fade away and their buildings being devoted to tourism and
hospitality. The example being shown is that of Ceskyy Krumlov, a city of 13,000 in Bohemia, visited every year by over a million tourists who have
‘pushed’ the original inhabitants out of the city center. The Pavilion is the
office of fictional UNES-CO project,
trying to reverse this process.

Exhibitors: Nicolas Chambon and Encore Heureux for the Hotel
Pasteur in Rennes: the Atelier Novembre for the CentQuatre-Paris in Paris;
PEROU (Pole d’exploration des ressources urbaines) and NAC (Notre Atelier
commun) for the Tri Postal in Avignon; Julien Beller for the 6B in Saint-Denis;
Jean-Marc Jourdain and Nicolas Bachet for the Convention in Auch; ARM Architecture
- Poitevin Reynaud, Construire, Matthieu Place, Encore Heureux, Jean-Luc
Brisson, David Onatzki, Duchier+Pietra Architectes, Olivier Moreux, Caractère
Spécial and BkClub for the Friche la Belle de Mai in Marseille; Encore Heureux
for the Ateliers Médicis in Clichy sous-bois-Montfermeil; Construire and Encore
Heureux for the Grande Halle in Colombelles.

The
exhibition recycles materials used for Studio Venezia, the project by Xavier Veilhan presented at the 2017 Art Biennale, and is about architectural experimentation's in the restitution of territory. A story of ten places across France - that have seen projects of
temporary occupation, public infrastructure, participative habitats, places of
work or culture, that make us wonder whether architecture is just about making
buildings or it is really about creating places.

On February 5, Germany celebrated Circle Day: 28 years, 2 months and 26
days since the fall of the Berlin Wall,
which is exactly the same time the Wall had divided the city in half. Walls to
tear down in the name of integration, walls to walk past to understand what differentiates
our world from what came before, walls to study to understand the history of a
nation. How and how much do division and integration influence architecture?
Starting with its own history, Germany presents a reflection on the concept of
a border and its effects on the organization of space.

Korea Engineering Consultants Corp., a
state-owned consultancy for architecture and civil engineering established in
1963, has been instrumental for the nation in terms of the development of
architecture and building. The four projects exhibited at the Korean Pavilion (the Pavilion for the 1970 Osaka Expo, the master plan for Yeouido Island, the Seawoon
Arcade and the Guro Industrial
Exposition plan) coming from the Corporation’s archive, were built in the
late 1960s to act as propaganda for Korea’s intention to become an industrial
powerhouse.

Dutch artist and
architect Constant Nieuwenhuys
created New Babylon, a theoretical
creative society, in the 1960s. In New Babylon, humankind is liberated by the
automation of the production process and can concentrate instead on personal
growth through play and creative development. This hypothetical future may now
be closer than we imagined: in Rotterdam
and in rural Holland a new
architecture of complete automation is being implemented, from the port’s self-managed
logistical infrastructure to the relationships that define the physical and
social landscape of a city. What are the short- and long-term implications of
automation on the urban environment? Curator Marina Otero Verzier searches for answers with the help of
architects, designers, historians and theorists.

The
relationship between nature and the built environment is investigated in order
to understand the latest trends in architecture, highlighting the fragile,
often invisible interactions between buildings and space. These intricacies are
examined by Sverre Fehen, the
architect who designed the Nordic
Pavilion’s building in 1962 and made it permeable to the eye, with no
definite separation between inside and outside, and able to show its content
clearly. Thanks to the natural light which floods the building through its
exceptional roof, forms, sounds and materials blend in an architecturally
unique way.

Questions of citizenship grow more
urgent every day in the USA, as in
the rest of the world. Seven professional teams show how architects and
designers can have a say on this topic and how cooperation between these two
disciplines may help us understand what we mean by ‘belonging.’ Inclusion and
exclusion, marginalization and democratic rights are reflected in the built
environment from the micro to the macro, from a table to a whole building, from
infrastructure to the planet. Other than the seven installations – each of
which tells the story of what it means to belong on a different scale – the
curators have selected video art on the themes of travel, mobility and
migration with respect to citizenship.